>> "inside washington" is brought you in part by the american federation of government employees, proud to make america work. for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org. >> production assistance for "inside washington" was provided by allbritton communications and politico, reporting on the legislative, executive, and political arena. >> we are going to die. we are going to freeze. >> this week on "inside washington," sandy's brutal october surprised. >> i want to thank the president personally. >> how many votes are these photographs worth? how do you compete with the natural disaster?

climate change? neither candidate wants to go near its. the new unemployment number -- how will it play in the polling place? jeep jobs in china flap. >> sold chrysler to italians who are going to build jeeps in china. >> an outrageous lie. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> we thought this is going to be a special preelection broadcast, that all we would have to do is handicapped the election. then along came hurricane sandy. in politics, a wise man told me once that you can never see around the corner. i don't want to minimize the tragic human dimensions of this giant storm and its aftermath, but this is a political program

and the election is next tuesday, so here goes. we start with new jersey gov. christie prior to hurricane sandy. >> send you back to chicago -- give you the plane trip back to chicago you have earned. i cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for the people of our state. >> he has put his heart and soul into making sure that the people of new jersey bounce back stronger than before. >> for the past several days, voters have seen the president on tv, at the white house, the red cross, as you just saw with the governor christie. they saw the president hugging victims and looking, well, presidential during the time of crisis. with the election practically on our doorstep, how will that the aftermath of sandy play out? >> it will play out good for president obama. in a time of disaster, the only elected officials who have

opportunity to perform our governors, mayors, with the president. all the senators and members of congress are dying to get on camera. chuck schumer is the only one i know who did. this is a real job. the president handled himself well and showed himself to be compassionate, as governor christie said, and christy "endorsement" of the president is nothing but a plus. >> nina? >> you really have to notice here that president clinton built up fema, the bush administration took it apart and then paid the price after katrina, and this president put it back up again and what not political people in, and it is paying off this week, it really is paying off. >> colby? >> it also draws a sharp

contrast between the two candidates. here you have president obama citing fema as the vehicle to coordinate the federal effort, and you had mitt romney last year on the campaign saying he would get rid of fema, he would turn the responsibilities back to the states, showing no appreciation for the role that fema place. >> this is a nightmare for political candidate romney. >> it is, especially if you are going after swing votes, woman voters in ohio, the so-called waitress a vote. they want a president who will care for them and be a guardian. this is an ad for a president who worries about you. it is terrible for romney. it stopped his momentum. maybe the polls or all wrong and romney is going to win anyway, but if you looking at the polls right now, obama has got it. >> did ghani have momentum, was that republican --romney of

momentum, or was that republican spin? >> he definitely add momentum after the first debate. >> we have had three since then. >> i wish i could say definitively that there is momentum ornamented i cannot tell. there are polls every hour on the hour, and you just get a sense that this is very tight, even when you go to some of the battle ground states. >> what do you make of this, mark? >> yes, the first debate made an enormous difference in the campaign, allowing mitt romney to reintroduce himself with no opposition on the part of the president as massachusetts reasonable mitt. gone was the saber-rattling mitt route, the suspec -- round up the suspects mitt and send them

to caracas. [laughter] he became reasonable, intelligent, boys. forget the cayman islands and the swiss bank accounts. that did change the race. frank bruni of "the new york times" made a telling point -- the first debate was important because it may president obama more truculent in the next debates, and he overcompensated for his miserable performance in the first debate trying to catch up. >> a parolee michael bloomberg did not care about the debates but he did care about -- apparently michael bloomberg did not care about the debates but he did care about sandy and he gave the president his endorsement. >> the reason he gave the endorsement was climate change, which he sees as an important issue and at least the president has taken note of it and that

has not happened on the other side. >> bloomberg is a popular guy in the east, but in other quarters he is not. the angry white males -- the question is, are the angry white males going to come out and save romney? bloomberg does not help obama with that crowd. >> i disagree. i think mayor bloomberg is a big help with the very important constituency of gun control, a gay-rights people who want to limit the size of a soft drinks. an overlooked sector. >> what about angry white males in ohio? >> this has been the real problem of the romney campaign, that while the obama's reach to

whites in general and white males in particular has been really less than mediocre, the fact is that in ohio, optimism and confidence of ohio has absolutely skyrocketed. quinnipiac this week showed 52% of ohio think that things getting better and only 17% think it is worse -- >> they are getting better in ohio. >> they are getting better in ohio. there is good news, and white males understand that the auto bailout was indispensable as crucial to the good news. >> we will get to climate change next. >> for us to say that this is what i generation and will not happen again, i think it would be shortsighted. part of learning from this is the recognition that climate change is a reality, extreme weather is a reality. >> new york governor andrew cuomo also said that 100-year

storms are coming every two years. hate to bring his name up, but how or predicted this. -- al gore predicted this. >> he sure did. >> they have seeress in the netherlands -- sea barriers in the netherlands. >> this may not be a question of the sea barriers. this heavy jet stream that came through -- that is caused by some of the warming taking place in the arctic. hence global warming is a problem. >> but back to al gore. al gore did not talk about the environment when he was running for president, and these guys did not talk -- >> when he was running in 1988 he talked about it. >> when you have the mitt romney as governor running against this

obama, their positions would not have been different mitt romney ndorser of cap- and-trade. >> there is a huge disconnect, because the political culture is still full of deniers and politicians reflect that. unbelievable to go through three talktes and not about climate change at all. >> there has been a lot of advertising by interest groups to put forth the idea of fossil fuels and negate the idea of climate mornings, and tha hasn't -- negate the idea of a climate warming, and that has had an effect. >> in september, one of nasa's's satellites went dark,

essentially did they had a back up a satellite, and that would tell us that the big storm was coming. they're not spending money. they are cutting back on this kind of stuff if we don't have those satellites -- >> while we have not been paying attention, the way we spend our money, state, local, and federal has gone more to transfer payments, writing checks to people for disabilities, health care, whatever, and that means less money for infrastructure. there is not enough money at any level to do things like eisenhower did in the 1950's or the interstate highway program. the money is not there for that. >> if you compare us to other advanced nations, we are way down the list. >> i do think that the barriers is a serious matter to discuss, but i don't think it is an alternative.

it is not the climate change or barriers. there is no reason we cannot do both. >> whether man-made or nature made it, the sea is rising -- >> absolutely. >> weatherman made it or nature made it, at the electrical grid has got to be fixed. >> you go down virginia and parts of pennsylvania and ohio, and the talk about more coal production. we have to come to grips with the reality that infrastructure is important. we will have to put new sources in there -- >> politicians -- we are never going to get there unless politicians bit honest about what is happening here. the percentage of money we spend on government has shifted from building bridges and highways and schools and those things we associate with government and instead to writing checks to individuals for what reason.

politicians will not be honest about this. until they are , you will not have the might to fix the electrical grid or build c. wallace. >> would it have made more sense for obama to put health care on the back burner? >> yes. >> that is really not clear, because one of the things -- nickel in obamacare is to reduce costs -- >> good luck with that. >> they are trying to do that. >> millions of people have access to care that they did not have before. that is not something i would treadway. >> the october jobs report and the impact on this election. >> i know what change looks like because i fought for it. >> america finally needs real change. it was promised and we will give it to the american people. >> no more mr. nice guy. the october jobs report.

unemployment, 7.9%, up from 7.83 171,000 jobs added in october, and august and september jobs numbers revised by 84,000. it still went up. does that hurt or help the president? >> it helps, but not a dramatic breakthrough. it does show progress, but it is snail-like. at this rate we will not have 5% unemployment that the daughters are grandmothers -- than the daughters or grandmothers. >> you also see signs of improvement in consumer confidence, the housing market coming back. the problem is on the corporate side, where they are not making investments. get that going --

>> not just the election, but what the politicians to do after the election. >> productivity, auto sales, retail -- those numbers were good. >> that is because people are feeling better. >> if so, why aren't his number is higher? >> whose numbers? >> barack obama. >> there is always a delight. we have gone through an excruciating four your -- always a delay. have gone through an excruciating four years, and assuming it gets better, and i think it will, it was president, unless -- >> a lot of businessmen at think there is going to be a correction, as they say on wall street, and if we go over the fiscal cliff and government cannot get its act together as usual, the market is like to go down maybe in a big way. >> obama should be in worse shape given how the economy is going -- >> politico reports that

liberals are worried that if obama is reelected, he will make a deal. >> i sure hope so. >> i hope so, too. they have done focus groups and they know what message cells. even eric cantor, obstructionist-in-chief, was saying that we need to put aside differences and reach a compromise. there has obviously been message research. we all we all -- can't just get along, mark? >> rodney king for lieutenant governor. right direction, wrong track number, 40%. dramatic improvement. how would you feel if the president is reelected? these are the same numbers, the same "wall street journal"-nbc

poll from eight years ago when a george w. bush 154% of the vote. that is the parallel this election, 2004, 2012. ohio decided then, ohio is at the epicenter today. history repeats itself. and that is the story from washington. [laughter] >> let's -- there is the benediction. >> shakier now than they were then. the real issue is how bad is the crisis have to be before congress' response? the wall street crash, going over the cliff -- what has to happen -- >> romney's numbers on the economy are better. >> slightly.

>> the senate, is it going to go republican, or state democrat? >> it is is going to state democratic barely. anybody disagree with me? >> kaine or george allen in virginia? >> kaine. >> kaine. >> kaine. that is 8 for kaine. [laughter] >> massachusetts -- elizabeth warren or scott brown? >> warren. >> i think. >> sherrod brown, casey in pennsylvania. >> any upsets? >> the one that could be is kerrey in nebraska, which nobody would have predicted. capt.gotten -- >> medal of honor winner. >> is endorsement of the chuck

hagel and alan simpson, serious republican leaders during the day and the senate. >> close in the poll. connecticut -- linda mcmahon's second race, millions of dollars doesn't do it. joe donnelly in indiana and not against mourdock -- hanging on against mourdock, the tea party candidate. jon tester in an absolute dead heat -- >> heidekamp, the long shot parcourse in north dakota, a perfect candidate, basically even with the republic -- terrific candidate, basically even with the republican candidate. mccaskill is close, i think.

>> to use t -- do you see much ticket splitting? a vote for obama or romney and then republican or democrat? >> i think we are in more plus n -- allies nation. >> ticket splitting would be helpful to romney, if the democrats held the senate, because romney could say to the crazies and his party that i have to make a deal with the democrats. >> back at bain? >> i am saying if elected, it might not be a tragedy -- >> republicans on not only going to keep tabs, probably going to keep most of their majority. the democrats would have to take over and seriously dent it. this is where it redistricting and late monday from super pacs has made a difference. >> rerun of 2000?

>> i don't see that i see barack obama -- i talked to a republican charge who won over these numbers, and i looked over again and again, i see barack obama winning electoral college. >> could it be possible for him to win the electoral college and lose the popular vote? >> i understand it is mathematically possible. >> how likely is it? >> more likely after sandy than before, because it affected the turnout in blue states. how many will vote in new york or pennsylvania, or new jersey, a blue state, where obama -- >> if they don't get to the polls -- >> no. >> how about early voting? who does that help? >> people claim to know that,

but i don't think -- >> there's a lot of spin. >> no, spin? >> people clinton now, -- and, know -- people claim to know, and i don't know how they really can. >> both of them are hiring lawyers on election night, so there will be a lot of contested votes. we could spin into wednesday, thursday, weeks beyond. >> could i have the envelope, please? >> how many states would be un result because of sandy? >> depends on the closeness of the race. >> most of the damage, and i am sure this is divine intervention on the part of conservatives, occurred in blue states.

>> let me talk about jobs again. how about romney's jeep ad. >> obamas told chrysler to italians who are going to build the jeeps in china. >> one of the most flagrantly dishonest ads have seen in my career. >> the chrysler ceo angrily denies shipping jobs to china, and chrysler's third quarter profits are up over a year ago. >> they are adding jobs in toledo. >> this was not a hail mary pass in ohio. this is absolute desperation. obama is going to carry it, we've got to do something. don't do it, it is going to come back and bite us. it has. he is basically saying that the

president of the united states, his bailout, is plotting with the gm and chrysler to send american jobs overseas to china. this is beyond a guy double parking outside of north ridge -- >> if mark is correct, and there was an internal fight, and i think we all think there had to be, because this is a pants on fire ad, the person who decides that in the end is the candidate. >> well -- >> no -- four years ago, mccain decided not to run ads that went after the jeremiah wright stuff. that was his decision to similarly, this had to be a romney decision. >> "i'm mitt romney and i --" >> a silly decision.

i was in china a couple years ago and the thing that really struck me was the extent to which the u.s. car manufacturers have penetrated that market. >> we should be wanting -- >> exporting. >> but we want to build them here. >> we do build some of them here, and some of them get finished there. penetrating markets helps us. >> what degree of the shamelessness campaigns engage in towards the end bread and this is important, mccain did the right thing -- we're not going to do race. i am sure his staff would have if he had not -- >> in the interest of fairness, the obama campaign did something egregiously indefensible, airing a spot in ohio with a statement about mitt romney, "he is not

one of west." that is codeword for the worst form of bigotry in this country. >> see you next week. >> "inside washington" is brought you in part by the american federation of government employees, proud to make america work. for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org.